Lindle reread the description of his newest skill again, a contemplative look on his face.

  What’s wrong? I didn’t think you’d have a problem with this skill.

  Lindle looked at Nothing and shook his head. “No, it’s not that. I’m just confused by it.”

  Why?

  “I mean, I guess I don’t know what it means. Isn’t Artificer about crafting artifacts? If I’m understanding this correctly it seems to work based on how well I make non-artifacts. How does that work?”

  Ah, I see. You mean you thought Artificer was only about manipulating Ethos when it came to crafting.

  “It’s not?” Lindle raised an eyebrow

  Nothing shook their head.

  Artificer, as my creator explained it, is a class centered around the creation and transformation of both the physical and the magical. Even though the main method an Artificer uses to create by manipulating Ethos and Pelos allows them to ignore most physical obstacles and necessities in the crafting process, that doesn’t mean one should neglect understanding the physical forms of artifacts that house their magical powers.

  “Their physical forms?” Lindle sat rapt with attention, glancing over to see Wildhunt Warhorn lying on his table. He looked over the imagery he had carved into its sides.

  Yes. You’ve partially started figuring this out already, but you’re not there exactly. This is where Item Identity Ethos comes into play. You created a very powerful magical effect in your item, but how much thought did you put into making your warhorn a functional warhorn?

  “I… huh?” Lindle cocked his head in confusion. “You mean, how well does it make noise? How does that matter?”

  Not much. For the warhorn at least. In a fight, I’d suppose you would care more about the magical effect than its utility as an actual warhorn in most circumstances. But what if you did? And more importantly, what about when you start designing actual weapons like swords and axes, or making armor? Will they just be stylish but nonfunctional vessels for magic?

  Lindle put a hand to his chin and considered. “I don’t know, I hadn’t really thought about it, but I definitely don’t want that.”

  Exactly. Item Identity Ethos is the part relating to your creation's function as a tool. How well does a sword you create that spits fire act as a sword, sharp and well-balanced? Does an armor artifact that redirects damage back onto an attacker also redistribute force well? Pelos needs to be sculpted like clay and you can’t do the same actions an actual blacksmith would in the forging process when you make an artifact out of metal, so instead you must do so mentally, imbuing your understanding into the Item Identity Ethos. In order to further your understanding however, you must craft without Ethos as well, and that’s where this skill comes in. It creates a synergy between your artificing and your mastery of other crafting disciplines. Once your mastery of a discipline reaches a threshold, your skill will add it to the list and empower everything you make, artifact or non-artifact, that would benefit from your mastery.

  A memory started to itch at the back of Lindle’s mind, and he thought back. Back in the hidden room he had found Nothing in, there had been rows and rows of different workstations that different types of crafters would use. “So the better I get at crafting something the normal way, the stronger any artifact I make becomes if I use my knowledge of a craft to design its physical body?”

  Stronger in the sense that it will perform its mundane function better. The magical effects you create using aspects won’t be directly affected, but a sword will cut sharper, armor will protect better, and even jewelry will be more aesthetically pleasing. It’s not just your artifacts too. I assume your highest-ranked discipline is alchemy right? That means your normal potions and any potion or other alchemical artifacts you create will be stronger too. How high is it?

  Lindle glanced at the screen. “It says five next to alchemy. Wait, alchemy artifacts?” Lindle’s gaze whipped back to Nothing. “Wait, I can make potion artifacts? Why didn’t you say anything?” He hadn’t mentioned it before, feeling like it would come off as ungrateful, but he had always felt a bit sad knowing that his skills in alchemy would quickly become irrelevant as he gained levels in artificer. Without the right skills from the right class it just wouldn’t be worth his time to continue despite all the hours his mother had spent teaching him.

  You didn’t know? I thought you just didn’t think it was worth it to create consumable artifacts. Most artificer apprentices didn’t bother mastering things like potions, since they still cause some Ethos strain to make but get used up immediately instead of something permanent like rings or weapons.

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  Lindle calmed down, thinking it through. He supposed that was fine, his normal alchemical items had done the job so far, and making them was a lot of how he filled his time recovering from Ethos strain. Strain was an eternal problem when it came to deciding what he should spend time on crafting, but he had figured he had spent his time wisely. Adding potion artifacts to the list of choices would have probably just made things more complicated. After making something as Ethos dense as the warhorn it would be some time before he could craft again, and once he did the next thing he was going to work on was Nothing’s body, but now that he knew he could, he was definitely going to experiment with alchemical artifacts at some point

  “Nope, but I guess it’s not a problem. It makes trying to pass alchemist off as my class now easier, plus it’s gonna be a lot of fun seeing how much it affects my regular potions too, especially with my gloves.” He grinned and looked down at the pair of zmey leather gloves he had taken off before crafting.

  -Alzymchical Gloves

  While touching an alchemical item with one of these gloves, the user may expend MP to charge the item. Alchemical reactions will then be enhanced by a degree determined by how much MP is spent. Too much MP being spent may risk destabilizing the alchemical item.

  “How much does Craft Mastering enhance stuff?”

  If I recall correctly, each rank translates to a 5% increase in power.

  So his potions and bombs were around 25% stronger. How would his gloves increase that? A couple of tests had shown his most basic health potions could handle around 10 points of Mana and restored close to 10% more HP, and his stronger potions only being able to handle a few points more. Was the boost multiplicative? Could they handle more points of Mana on top of being stronger?

  Lindle couldn’t resist the urge to rub his hands together in anticipation. He definitely wanted to show off some new tricks to his friends now. Maybe he could pull off a surprise on Madam Holly.

  Anything else pass the threshold on the mastery list?

  “Just pottery and cooking, surprisingly enough. Pottery is ranked 1 and cooking 2.” Lindle wasn’t sure how he was considered good enough at cooking for the system to acknowledge it. His mom had taught him the basics and it was similar enough to alchemy that it wasn’t difficult to pick up. It certainly didn’t feel like he had trained more to learn cooking than pottery.

  Considering how much practice you put in over the last few months pottery better be on the list. I don’t want my finished body to come out all deformed just because you couldn’t make an arm indistinguishable from a head.

  Nothing passed on an amused feeling over their link.

  Pottery is common for apprentices to pick up since it’s the closest mundane skill to artificing. Even if they neglected everything else for that skill if they didn’t have a single rank of pottery my master had some very harsh words for them. He even kicked someone out over it once. Cooking is a pleasant surprise though, you should make the attempt to nurture that more often.

  “I’ll keep it in mind.” Lindle stood up, stretching out his stiff limbs. Sleeping over his desk wasn’t pleasant, but a light draw on his constitution stat made him feel better. He picked up Wildhunt Warhorn and stashed it in his bag. “I’m going to go show this to everyone and my new Skill.” Madam Holly had another training session later today planned.He had turned to leave out the door when Nothing spoke.

  Oh? If you’re leaving the village, do you think you could clean this up and take it with you? You’ve built up quite a lot of black dust. Sometimes it gets into the fireplace and is fairly unpleasant.

  Lindle paused and grimaced. Looking back to see all the black dust piled up at the back of his table and underneath it, as he had started to do once his wastebin became full.

  He had meant to take care of it at some point, but figuring out where to safely stash a bunch of eye-catching black dust in a white snow-covered village had made it easy to put off. Now Nothing was pulling out the guilt trips. He could feel the amusement but he was still being honest. Lindle sighed. “How am I supposed to take it all with me? Pile it all into my bag? That’ll take forever.”

  Nothing shrugged.

  You’re the one who let it build up so much. Now, I think I’m going to take a nap.

  The homunculus curled up in their fireplace.

  Lindle sighed again, resigned as he got down on his knees and started shoveling.

  —---------------

  Lindle’s current status